Corporate Form, Institutional Complementarity, and Organizational Behavior: Open versus Closed Joint-Stock Companies in Russia

Abstract

The vast majority of Russian corporations are still compelled to become closed joint-stock companies that lack a modern fundraising mechanism in order to attract capital from a wide range of private investors. This is due to factors such as significant insider ownership, a strong orientation among managers toward closed organizations, slumping needs for corporate finance, and underdeveloped local financial institutions. The impact of ownership structure on the choice of corporate form exists, even if we assume that the two elements are determined endogenously. Under these circumstances, however, a significant number of closed companies attempt to develop more open internal organizational structures that are virtually the same as those of open companies. Nonetheless, an institutional coupling of a closed corporate form and an open internal organizational structure is far from effective in resolving the serious in-house problems facing Russian firms, such as the prevention of infighting among executives and shareholders and the implementation of discipline among top management.